Slo-go'en
10-24-2012, 10:37
About 11 PM last night I get a call from my friend who owns the motel up the road from me. Seems a hiker had just shown up at the front door and was looking for someone to give him a ride back to his car, which was up at the top of the Jefferson notch road. She called me as I'm about the only one around who would be willing to do such a thing and still be up at that time of night. Okay, I'm willing and although a strange mission, I'll find out the details of why when I get there.
It turns out the hiker was a day hiker who had gone up the Caps Ridge trail to the summit of Mt Jefferson. The problem was, he left the parking lot at about 2 PM, which even in good conditions would be a bit marginal to get to the summit and back before dark this time of year. But when he got above tree line, he ran into snow and ice which slowed him down a lot. He said once he broke out above tree line, it was like a whole different world up there. Yep, sure is.
Anyway, he finally gets to the summit, looses the trail, then finds a trial, but this one is the Castle trail, which goes down a different ridge then the one he came up on and which eventually comes out to the highway, pretty much miles from anything. Then once at the highway, it took him a while to get a ride standing on the side of that dark and desolute road, as the temps started to dip towards freezing.
This story could well have had a different ending if he hadn't had a headlamp and had ended up on a different trail (it's a real maze up there) which might have lead him into the Great Gulf instead of down to the highway. I didn't ask if he had a map with him, but I suspect not.
So, that was my good deed for the day and only asked that he pay it forward if and when he got the chance. I finally got back home just after midnight. Driving up and down the Jefferson Notch road, a narrow, twisty dirt road, in the dark, is really slow.
It turns out the hiker was a day hiker who had gone up the Caps Ridge trail to the summit of Mt Jefferson. The problem was, he left the parking lot at about 2 PM, which even in good conditions would be a bit marginal to get to the summit and back before dark this time of year. But when he got above tree line, he ran into snow and ice which slowed him down a lot. He said once he broke out above tree line, it was like a whole different world up there. Yep, sure is.
Anyway, he finally gets to the summit, looses the trail, then finds a trial, but this one is the Castle trail, which goes down a different ridge then the one he came up on and which eventually comes out to the highway, pretty much miles from anything. Then once at the highway, it took him a while to get a ride standing on the side of that dark and desolute road, as the temps started to dip towards freezing.
This story could well have had a different ending if he hadn't had a headlamp and had ended up on a different trail (it's a real maze up there) which might have lead him into the Great Gulf instead of down to the highway. I didn't ask if he had a map with him, but I suspect not.
So, that was my good deed for the day and only asked that he pay it forward if and when he got the chance. I finally got back home just after midnight. Driving up and down the Jefferson Notch road, a narrow, twisty dirt road, in the dark, is really slow.